As per the latest update from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Though total area planted to soybean in Canada dropped 13 percent in 201 to 2.56 million hectares, MY 2018/19 production only fell 6 percent as Ontario harvested a record 4.2 MMT crop . Ontario area planted was two percent lower in 2018, but above average rainfall in late July and August helped drive yields to a province record high of 3.45 MT/ha. For the first time in ten years, Manitoba farmers seeded fewer hectares to soybeans in 2018, driving area planted down 18 percent to 769,000 hectares. In Quebec, soybean area planted was down 7 percent to 370,000 hectares, and Saskatchewan farmers planted only 165,000 hectares, less than half of what they planted in MY 2017/18.

Industry sources indicated that lower soybean prices as well as low subsoil moisture and drier weather forecasts at planting in 2018 combined with some recovery in wheat prices drove soybean area planted in Manitoba and Saskatchewan into a pronounced retreat. The percentage of Canada's total soybean crop planted to GE varieties has been edging up at an average pace of 1.2 percentage points per year over the past 5 years as GE varieties have made prairie soybeans a possibility (Table 7). An estimated 262,000 hectares (71 percent) of Quebec's soybean crop was GE in 2018, while neighboring Ontario planted 935,000 hectares to GE varieties (76 percent) in 2018. However, in Manitoba, 99 percent of 2018 soybean area planted was GE (approximately 761,000 hectares). Ontario and Quebec have higher levels of food grade soybean production, which tends to be dominated by conventional varieties.

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